No Place to Run (KGI #2)(80)

“Honey, let me look at your hand. I need to see how badly you’ve hurt it.”

He purposely kept his voice low-pitched and soothing. Her gaze was still focused on Garrett, and another tear rolled down her cheek.

His heart turned over in his chest. God almighty but he loved her. His skin itched and crawled with the need to hold her and comfort her.

“Soph, let me have your hand, sweetheart.”

She looked at him finally, and then she glanced down at her hand, confusion clouding her blue eyes. Slowly she extended it, but held it gingerly in her other hand.

He winced when he saw the two swollen and obviously broken fingers. He gently prodded at her wrist and moved her other fingers. Only the two were injured. It probably hurt like hell, but he couldn’t discern any other injuries. He prayed she didn’t have anything internal.

He touched a finger to her neck to find her pulse. It was a little erratic, but it beat strongly against his fingertips. Her color wasn’t too bad considering. She was pale, yes, but not deathly so. It was her mental state that was bothering him at the moment.

Not even the sound of the helicopter fazed her. She just sat there, her eyes vacant, her face dusty and tear-stained.

“Sam,” Ethan called. “You need to get her aboard. Mom and Resnick are going to stay with me and Van. We’ll drive out. There’s room for both you and Sophie.”

Sam gathered her close in his arms and carefully lifted her from the truck. She lay limply against him as he hurried across the ground toward the waiting helicopter.

Donovan leaned down to take Sophie from his arms when Sam arrived.

“How’s Garrett?” Sam shouted.

“Stable,” Donovan yelled back. “I’ve stopped the blood and applied a pressure dressing. He’s hurting like a son of a bitch, but he’ll make it.”

Sam closed his eyes and inhaled deeply in relief. Thank God.

Donovan crouched in the helicopter and situated Sophie on one of the seats while Sam climbed in behind him. Garrett was on a litter on the floor, his legs and one arm immobilized.

He opened his eyes and stared up at Sam.

“Sophie?” he mouthed.

Sam leaned down close to his brother’s ear. “She’s okay, I think. Thanks to you.”

Garrett tried to shrug but then paled in pain.

Sam put his hand on Garrett’s chest and stared down fiercely at the big man.

“Thanks, man. I can never repay what you just did for me. You saved . . . you saved my future. You saved my life.”

Garrett smiled faintly. His mouth worked, but Sam couldn’t hear him over the roar of the engine. He leaned closer.

“She means a lot to you, man. I was wrong about her.”

Sam returned his brother’s pained smile. “So was I.”

“All set?” the pilot yelled back.

Donovan hopped out of the back and then gave the pilot a thumbs-up. Sam scrambled up and sat next to Sophie who still stared at Garrett with numb shock.

Sam leaned in close, touched her cheek, then nuzzled through her hair to her ear.

“He’s going to be just fine, honey, I promise.”

For the first time she seemed aware of Sam, and she turned her anxious gaze on him. She tried to say something, but he lost it as the helicopter lifted into the air.

She looked back down at Garrett so close to her feet. Garrett smiled. Sam knew it had to be difficult when it was obvious he was hurting, but he lifted his free hand up to Sophie.

She grasped it and Garrett squeezed. He would have dropped his hand back down, but she held tight and leaned over to hold it between her knees.

“I’m okay,” he mouthed up at Sophie. “You?”

She only nodded, then grimaced and held up her right hand to show him the swollen, misshapen fingers.

Garrett winced in sympathy, but he kept holding Sophie’s other hand as they hovered over the terrain.

Some of Sam’s anxiety and the tightness in his chest dissipated as he watched Garrett soften toward Sophie. Garrett looked at Sam, and Sam knew his brother had seen the same fragility in Sophie, almost like she was teetering on the edge of a complete breakdown.

Sam leaned over and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her in close and slid one hand down to cup her belly. He wanted to feel the reassuring thump of their child, but her stomach was still and rigid.

He wouldn’t borrow trouble and wouldn’t expend energy worrying needlessly. Their daughter had to be okay. Sophie had to be okay.

He couldn’t live without either.

CHAPTER 32

SAM sat in the chair next to Sophie’s hospital bed with his foot propped on the edge. And he simply watched her sleep. He watched the little red lines feed across the machine that monitored her for contractions, content that for now, all seemed well with their child.

She’d been poked, prodded and checked over within an inch of her life. Sam had insisted. She’d had a CT scan and multiple X-rays, her head had been stitched up, and her right hand had a partial cast.

The rest of the family was waiting for Garrett to get out of surgery. The bullet hadn’t been a clean through-and-through. A fragment of it had lodged in Garrett’s shoulder, and they were going in to remove it.

Sam had already called Sean to get a report on their father and to let everyone back home know that Marlene—and Sophie—were safe.

He should have felt on top of the world. The nightmare was over. Resnick and company were crawling all over Mouton’s compounds, but Sam had taken the key from Garrett before he went into surgery.